FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT OBEROI HOTELS - PAGE 4

NEW DELHI: Even as the travel market in India grows rapidly, the Global Distribution System (GDS) players are charting new paths. GDS players, the companies which enable global ticketing like Galileo, Amadeus and Abacus, are venturing into areas beyond airline ticketing. The new service verticals they have added include hotel bookings, car rentals and cruises. Currently, the overall GDS industry is worth more than $350 million, out of which the non-air segment is about $7 million. The non-air segment includes hotels (chains, representation companies, and independent hotel companies)

LONDON: Consider how a city looks to a terrorist seeking target. There's the airport ? inviting, but heavily secured. There's the US Embassy, perimeter guarded by crack local forces and Marines. And there's the plush international hotel, open to anyone with a decent outfit and money for a cup of coffee. Across the world, the finest hotels draw foreign businessmen, droves of tourists, and local movers and shakers who crowd the restaurants and bars to see and be seen.

Light , height, space is the mantra, I was told as I walked into the eyewateringly white lobby of The Oberoi Gurgaon. A bold philosophy indeed for a hotel set in the scorching dust bowl of the Aravallis where every square inch of real estate means moolah. But then who knows better than PRS 'Biki' Oberoi that real luxury is always intangible and, often, a matter of context. What is commonplace in one geography is spectacular in another. So if floor-to-ceiling stainless steelframed glass walls that give all those who try to guage its height a crick in the neck are par for the course in daylight-deficient Scandinavia, they are a glorious indulgence in Gurgaon.

NEW DELHI: The Oberoi Vanyavilas , Ranthambore, has been ranked the best hotel in the world. The Oberoi Amarvilas, Agra, Rajvilas Jaipur and Udaivilas Udaipur have been ranked second, third and fourth respectively in Asia and positioned number five, 13 and 15 (in the same order) in world ranking, according to a readers' poll by 'Travel+Leisure' magazine. Interestingly, the group's domestic expansion plans include opening Oberoi Gurgaon by Dec 2010/early January 2011.

MUMBAI: Seventeen months after it was closed following the terror attack of November 2008, the Oberoi hotel is ready to return its much-cherished offering to its guests ? the grand view of the Arabian Sea. With 50 more new suites, the 300-plus rooms hotel will have 280 more rooms and will formally open on April 24. The Kolkata-based East India Hotels (EIH) estimates the total cost of renovation will be $35-40 million, a senior hotel official told reporters on Wednesday. "During the time of restoration, we found that future will be of luxury travels.

NEW DELHI: Offering its guests a new technological experience, East India Hotels that runs Oberoi brand of hotels and resorts, is offering a virtual walk through of all properties in India on Google's Street View. By opening its doors to the company's specially designed cameras, Google Maps users can now explore 360° images of all Oberoi Hotels & Resorts in India, the company said in a statement. Google Street View is a technology that provides panoramic views and is available for many places in the world.

NEW DELHI: Oberoi Group on Friday said its three properties in Mumbai, Bali and Mauritius have won international awards for its qualitative excellence. The Group, which won these awards at the fifth annual leaders club award function at Los Angeles, said its Mumbai property won the Leaders Club Silver Award. Oberoi Bali received the highest overall score given to a hotel while Mauritius won the award for the leading small hotel in the Africa/Middle East region, it said.

MUMBAI: One of the world's top hospitality chain, Mandarin Oriental, is in talks with newly-listed Oberoi Realty to set up its first hotel in India. If the deal goes through, the hotel chain will manage the latter's proposed second luxury hotel at Worli in Mumbai, persons close to development told ET. The home and commercial property developer's current partner Starwood Hotels and Resorts , which manages and operates its first hotel The Westin at Goregaon , is also keen on managing the Worli hotel.

Washington:Oberoi Hotel, one of the sites attacked during the 2008 Mumbai strikes, was not originally on the list of targets for surveillance given to David Headley by his ISI handler but he made a video of it after filming Chhabad House as he had an hour to spare before he could catch a movie. This was revealed by the Pakistani-American LeT operative in his testimony before a Chicago court during co-accused Tahawwur Rana's recently-concluded trial. Headley said Chhabad House was added to the list at the direction of his ISI handler Major Iqbal, who told him that this was a house from where the Israeli spy agency operates.

NEW DELHI: Hospitality major Oberoi Group's luxury brand Oberoi Hotels & Resorts has been voted as 'World's Leading Luxury Hotel Brand 2013' at the World Travel Awards (WTA). This is for the second consecutive year the honour has been bestowed on the brand, the Oberoi Group said today. Commenting on the development, The Oberoi Group Executive Chairman P R S Oberoi said: "The award is an affirmation of The Oberoi Group's unwavering commitment towards offering guests world-class facilities and unsurpassed service.